Superman Returns (2006)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Bryan Singer

Writers (WGA):

Michael Dougherty (screenplay) &
Dan Harris (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 June 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

After a long visit to the lost remains of the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel returns to earth to become the peoples savior once again and reclaim the love of Lois Lane.

Plot Keywords:

Inheritance Of Superpowers | Zero Gravity | Repeated Line | Burglary | Childhood

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 8 wins & 21 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Oct. 21

7:15 PM

MAX

Cast

Brandon Routh	...	Clark Kent / Superman
Kate Bosworth	...	Lois Lane
Kevin Spacey	...	Lex Luthor
James Marsden	...	Richard White
Parker Posey	...	Kitty Kowalski
Frank Langella	...	Perry White
Sam Huntington	...	Jimmy Olsen
Eva Marie Saint	...	Martha Kent
Marlon Brando	...	Jor-El (archive footage)
Kal Penn	...	Stanford
Tristan Lake Leabu	...	Jason White
David Fabrizio	...	Brutus
Ian Roberts	...	Riley
Vincent Stone	...	Grant
Jack Larson	...	Bo the Bartender

Also Known As:

Red Sun (USA) (fake working title)
Superman Reborn (USA) (working title)
Superman V (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some intense action violence.

Runtime:

154 min

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Hungary:14 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Finland:K-11 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42582) | Germany:12 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Norway:11 | Argentina:13 | Chile:TE | Brazil:10 | USA:PG-13 | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Iceland:10 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:11 | Hong Kong:IIA | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | South Korea:All | New Zealand:M | South Africa:10V

Filming Locations:

Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Bryan Singer was still under a three-picture deal with Fox from X2 when he decided to jump ship to direct this movie. As the consequence, his deal was terminated and one of his under-development projects with Fox, Logan's Run was ultimately shelved and the third X-Men picture was under jeopardy. The vacant's director's role for the third X-Men would go to Brett Ratner who lost to Singer for the first X-Men movie.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Perry White prepares two versions of the front page of The Daily Planet for Friday September 29th, 2006. The camera zooms in on the one with the banner headline "SUPERMAN IS DEAD" and we see that the date is "Friday September, 29th 2006". Note the misplaced comma.

Quotes:

Lois Lane: How many "f's" in "catastrophic"?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

As Time Goes By

Grand, bombastic, and entertaining revival

Congratulations to Bryan Singer for making another film, under challenging conditions, that meets his own relatively high standards. Congratulations to Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, who fill a couple pairs of sizable shoes very well. Congratulations to Kevin Spacey for proving, once again, his versatility and competence within an ensemble cast. And finally, congratulations to Michael Dougherty and the rest of the writing team for Superman Returns, who have done the seemingly impossible by blending together several elements taken from disparate Superman stories over seventy or so years of the character's development in several DC comics titles into a true-to-character, intelligently written and themed, blend of romance and wild world-saving action.

I can hear the film snobs now - "just what we need, another bombastic action flick loaded with CGI and cliché in place of a 'SERIOUS' human story." Yup, it's a bombastic action flick. Yes, it is crammed with special effects. And yes, if you consider simple and largely unexamined human emotions to be cliché, then Superman Returns is loaded with clichés. My advice to the film snobs is - don't review films you are predisposed to dislike. If you do not have a standard from which you are able to measure the worth of a certain genre, then you have no business reviewing in that genre.

Let's examine this rationally. The whole point of the character of Superman is to provide a fantastic superhuman persona who is so alien and so vastly superior in terms of physical being, knowledge, and morality, that he becomes a mirror through which we are forced to critically examine our own social, political, emotional, and health problems. What kinds of problems would such a vastly superior being trouble himself with? Well, guess what, he might not have time for the day to day subtleties of social and sexual intrigues and ambiguities, the role of the media in political rhetoric or other "SERIOUS" concerns plaguing the modern intellectual elite. Superman is concerned with more fundamental issues such as whether half the world's population is going to live out the day. Yet he still manages to find time to rekindle a dysfunctional relationship with love interest Lois Lane, and to be inspired to prove himself with a flourish of light-speed heroic antics to regain his esteem among a people whose cynicism and self-contempt have apparently gotten the better of them (film snobs all?). in fact, he even MAKES MISTAKES!!!!

Kal-El returns to earth just in time to confront his old arch-nemesis Lex Luther's plot to rebuild a chunk of Krypton off the coast of New Jersey as his own continent. He must also unexpectedly confront his own feelings for the people of earth and, in particular, for Lois Lane, now an unmarried mother with an asthmatic kid and a smoking habit. Lois is also engaged to a good guy, very competently acted by James Marsden, but the paternity of her son is suspect. Considering the fact that this is a "bombastic action film" a remarkable amount of time is taken up with developing the relationships between these characters and exploring their effects on one another. And at times, you even get the feeling that at least some of Superman's heroism is inspired by his feelings for Lois.

The bigger problem is that Luther has Kryptonite, and plenty of it, and so, Superman is mortally vulnerable and must fight for his own life as well as those of his adoptive species.

Ignore the geological inaccuracies (which are plenty), forget about the occasional continuity problems, and let yourself get sucked up into this very fine and well crafted example of the superhero action genre. If you're a hardened film snob, it's worth the effort of wriggling out of your fossilized suit of cynical armor just long enough to see what the value of a film with a positive, simple, message might be.